Letters: Win some, lose some

Michael Duff (Letters, 11 January) has some good knockabout fun with William Bown's article (Forum, 30 November), but neither he nor Duncan McCollin (Letters, 21/28 December) invalidates the basic point: that whether or not the UK can be said to be suffering a brain drain of engineers and scientists depends on which countries are considered.

Data collected by the Royal Society in 1987 support Michael Duff's claim with respect to the US, to which there is a net loss of talent. Indeed, the statistics of the US National Science Foundation show that the US tends to cream off talent from all over the world.

The government's claim that the brain drain is a myth is, however, based on movements to and from all countries. The Royal Society data show that there is a net inflow to Britain from, for example, India and the Middle East. Both British Science Abroad and ...

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